Even a non-Christian knows something about the Earth, the heavens, and other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the Sun and Moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons...and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.
[St. Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Vol. 1 (trans. John Hammond Taylor, S.J.). New York: Paulist Press, 1982, pp.42-43.]
Quoted in The Heavens Proclaim from The Catholic Company
